Mach's principle and space-time structure

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Abstract
Mach's principle, that inertial forces should be generated by the motion of a body relative to the bulk of matter in the Universe, is shown to be related to the structure imposed on space-time by dynamical theories. General relativity theory and Mach's principle are both shown to be well supported by observations. Since Mach's principle is not contained in general relativity this leads to a discussion of attempts to derive Machian theories. The most promising of these appears to be a selection rule for solutions of the general relativistic field equations, in which the space-time metric structure is generated by the matter content of the Universe only in a well-defined way.